


Red Horns - A Catradora Story

by Whenlifelemons



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Demons, Basically Catra is a Half Demon, Basically the Afterlife, Basketball AU, Canon Lesbian Character, Demon Hunter Entrapta, Drug Use, Entrapta becomes Shane Madej, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/F, Jock Adora (She-Ra), Love/Hate, Mental Instability, Mentions of Suicide, Not Meant to be Religious But There Will Be Mentions of Religious Topics, Ouija, Sexual Tension, be warned, demon catra
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:27:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25890565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whenlifelemons/pseuds/Whenlifelemons
Summary: They say that it is impossible for demons to love. They say demons' only jobs are to bring their victims to hell, and to damn those who dare step in their path.But when Adora, a girl caught up on the wrong night, meets a human and demon hybrid, she learns that there are exceptions.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter One

Eyes watched as a woman slouched back into an old couch, surrounded by empty shot bottles and in front of her, a blunt in an ashtray. Beside her, sitting in a loveseat, were two other figures, one of a large stature and one smaller. 

These eyes had been watching the woman for a short time, only about an hour. The place was new to them, the woman was new to them. 

The taller figure, a man of dark complexion, had his arm wrapped around a smaller woman, cuddling himself into her as she fell into a deep sleep.

The man sighed. “I don’t think Glimmer’s gonna make it through the rest of the night,” he guessed with a small smile.

The woman on the couch turned her head slowly and returned his smile. She coughed a few times before responding, “That’s okay. I didn’t expect for her to last that long anyways.”

The man shifted slightly, leaning towards a board in front of him. On it were engraved letters, spelling out the English lexicon. An expression in his eyes changed to resemble something of slight fear.

“I can’t believe Glimmer actually bought this,” the man said, his voice cracking slightly. His hand wrapped tighter around his smaller companion, yet still soft.

The woman didn’t respond for a while. Fear had been plastered on her face since the moment their eyes have laid on her. Whether or not that she knew there was another being in this room besides the three of them, she seemed discontent, maybe even scared, with the game they had just played. 

She tried for a smile yet failed. “Bow?”

The man, the one named Bow, answered with a hum, motioning for her to continue. Glimmer rustled in his arms, but was still asleep, nonetheless. When in a room with a supernatural being, your dreams are altered, just as your surroundings are. 

The blonde woman hesitated again, before finally asking, “Do you believe in spirits?”

As the words left her mouth, her white face became paler. It became quite obvious that she had spooked herself with the sole thought of spirits being real, worse yet being in the same room as her.

Bow scoffed slightly, a loose curl falling over his face as he shook his head. “Adora, this Ouija board stuff is all fake,” he chuckled. “I mean, its literally just letters scratched into wood.”

Glimmers body suddenly shook, causing Bow to grab onto her more tightly. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched her face scrunch up and release again.

Adora leaned forward and watched intently as Glimmer continued to writhe in her sleep, her dream disturbed by an unknown force. A look of horror then crossed the sleeper’s face. Bow held her closer to his chest, whispering the girl’s name in an attempt to peacefully wake her up. The woman known as Adora stood and took a stride towards the couple on the loveseat.

Glimmers face then rested back into its normal state. Bow and Adora destressed. Bow let his grip on the woman soften, a small smile making its way back to the boy’s face. Adora took a small step back, ready to sit back down on the couch she had earlier been occupying.

In an instant, Glimmer writhed again, her face contorting into something that seemed so unnatural, so devilish, so vile that once Bow laid his eyes on it, he practically threw her out of his arms and ran across the room. His breath hitched as she watched Adora turn around in a confused manner, only for her eyes to widen and her mouth to let out a scream.

Both backed away from Glimmer, absolutely terrified by what they had seen. But yet, in an instant, Glimmer stopped writhing, her face was back to its olive tone, and she was again sleeping peacefully. Both figures blinked at the sleeping woman, exasperated by what they had just – or maybe hadn’t – seen. 

Glimmer gave a small groan before her eyes fluttered open, pupils bloodshot and face sweating. She first stared up at the ceiling before her eyes darted to Bow and Adora, huddled together in a corner, terror written on their faces.

“W-What are you- is there a bug or somethin’?” Glimmer asked sleepily, her eyes struggling to stay open as she used her elbows to prop herself up. 

Bow was the first to move, taking a careful step towards Glimmer. He eyed her warily, earning a confused stare back. Adora watched anxiously, not daring to move as Bow had.

He then decided to throw all caution into the oblivion and strode up to Glimmer, taking her into a tight hug. Adora’s eyes widened as she watched Glimmer hug him back. She watched for anything out of the ordinary, from the way her hands curled around his shoulders to the content face she made as she laid her cheek on his chest.

“Bad dream?” Bow whispered, a breath of relief forcing its way out. 

Glimmer’s eyes dropped down in embarrassment. She nodded against him, only burying herself deeper into his prolonged hug.

Adora finally took a step towards the two, staring at Glimmer, just waiting for her face to contort again and for it to scare the living shit out of her. But it never came. Glimmer was just Glimmer.

Bow sighed before releasing Glimmer from his grasp. He took her hand into his and rubbed circles with his thumb, an attempt to calm her, along with himself as well. Try as he might to keep a steady face, his fear from earlier still showed through.

Both Adora and Bow silently decided not to say anything to Glimmer, as it just might make her more scared than she already was after enduring a nightmare. They both seemed to chalk it up as a possible cause of the mixture between the marijuana and hard liquor, yet a small doubt seemed to linger in their features.

“Glimmer and I should probably get going,” Bow announced to Adora, whose face almost immediately fell. His eyes shifted around the room nervously before adding, “This all probably wasn’t the best idea.”

It seemed that Adora couldn’t agree more, yet she campaigned for both of her friends to stay. 

“I don’t,” Adora grabbed her bicep nervously, her cheeks slowly turning a darker shade. “I don’t wanna be alone tonight.”

Bow grimaced. It seemed he understood, yet he shook his head. “We can’t stay over. We all have class tomorrow, and Glimmer’s is as 6 am.”

Adora shot a disgruntled look towards Bow, whose hand was practically on the doorknob. His arm was hooked around Glimmer’s, who looked as if she was ready to fall asleep right then and there. Bow gave Adora a dry smile before letting himself out of the dorm room, leaving the blonde alone in a room reeking of weed, vodka and trepidation.

As scared as Adora was, she simply couldn’t leave the living room a mess before heading off to bed. She slowly started to pick up everything besides the Ouija board, which Bow and Glimmer left with her for god knows why. She eyed it with uncertainty, not wanting to touch it, but also not wanting to simply leave it there. She didn’t know what would haunt her more – picking the thing up, or leaving it there as she slept. 

On an impulse decision, she decided to simply kick it all the way towards her small kitchen, letting it slide on her tile floor instead of picking it up. She then opened a cabinet and grabbed mismatched oven gloves before actually grabbing the damned board and throwing it into her trash can. She then grabbed the trash bag and tied it up, for good measure.

She waddled towards her balcony, trying to keep as much space between her and the trash bag as she could. As fresh air hit her, she did the most sensible thing she could think of at the time – threw the trash bag off of her balcony and down six floors. 

Someone else is going to deal with that shit, not me, it seemed her intentions were.

A proud smile crossed her face as she marched back to her bedroom, finding herself calm enough to attempt at sleep. A being followed her into the bedroom, keeping a watchful eye on her as she stretched. A small moan escaped her lips as she let out all her pent up stress from the day by stretching, finally allowing herself to relax. She then stripped of her jeans before slowly tucking herself under the covers.

After some time of waiting as Adora mindlessly scrolled on her phone, all lights were turned off and the being felt pleased, almost smug, at having the advantage in the dark. Smirking, the figure let down their guard as they allowed themselves to be visible to the blonde human, if only to be a shadow in the dark. They decided to position themselves at the corner of her room, simply watching as Adora struggled to fall asleep.

The figure waited patiently for Adora to open her eyes. Self-discipline wasn’t their strong suit, but when waiting for a dramatic entrance, as their friend would call it, they could wait a little.

Eventually, Adora opened her eyes and dragged them across her bedroom. She almost passed by the glooming figure in her corner, as it was almost pitch black in her room, but oh, she saw it. Her eyes widened as she examined the corner, as if to make sure what she was seeing was real. 

The being smirked to themselves, not bothering with trying to confuse the human of their presence. They wanted her to know that they were there, that there was something other than her occupying the bedroom. 

Once Adora finally realized that what she was seeing was real, her breath hitched, suddenly freezing up. Gears in her brain shifted.

She went to reach into her drawer quickly and pulled out a human weapon – a gun, it would seem – then turned on the lamp that lay on the nightstand next to her. She practically jumped out of her bed as she held up the gun, pointing it around the room.

But before Adora could see the figure in the light, they had vanished, watching her with shadowed eyes as they hid themselves from her again. Adora’s eyes widened as she realized that the figure that was there, had to have been there, was now gone, and without a trace.

Her face hardened yet again, holding her weapon up with ferocity. “Whoever you are, wherever you are, I am not afraid to shoot you!” she shouted with wavering confidence. “Even though I technically can’t own it, I still do, so- Whatever! Just come out!”

The figure slunk up to the blonde, a devilish glint in their eyes as they positioned themselves in front of the gun. They waited for Adora to blink before quickly sliding the safety back on the gun without the woman noticing. In an instant, the figure revealed itself to the blonde, fangs poking their lips as a big smirk played along their features. 

Once Adora saw the being, her reaction was immediate – she pulled the trigger, only to realize that nothing had happened. Her eyes widened as she frantically sent her finger to slide the safety away. Before she could, however, the gun was plucked out of her grasp with incredible strength.

“Oh, Adora,” The being chuckled. Their clawed fingers ran across the cold metal of the gun, yet they kept their eyes trained on the woman in front of them. They leaned forward so that their face was only inches from Adora’s, whose face was deathly pale and her eyes watered with pure dread.

“You can’t kill what’s already dead.”


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora meets her demon.

Adora’s eyes took in the terrifying sight before her. A woman stood before her – or what seemed to be a woman – smiling maliciously. Fangs poked out of her smirk, which matched the claws on her hands that ran over the gun she had swiped from her. Red horns and cat-like ears stuck out of the woman’s untidy hair, and she wore a red suit with an undone tie hanging from her neck.

As the horned figure continued to stare at Adora, she instinctively took a step back. Seeing as she did so, the woman in front of her followed suit, only coming in closer as Adora attempted to put more distance between them. Eventually, her hips came in contact with her nightstand. It gave a warning creak as Adora only pressed further into it, searching for anywhere to run. Her sunken eyes had quickly returned to their sober state by now.

The woman let out an almost maniacal laugh as she cornered Adora, taking satisfaction as she watched the blonde throw her hands back to catch herself on the bedside table.   
Adora, attempting to put as much space between her and the intruder, leaned against the nightstand, causing it to creak in distress yet again.

The intruder took this as an opening to lean against Adora, practically putting all of her body weight on her as she held her down against the desk. Her clawed hands harshly met Adora’s wrists to keep her in place and used her fur-covered legs to straddle her, successfully locking Adora in place.

Adora could hear her own heart frantically pumping blood throughout her body, adrenaline rushing through her yet nothing to do with it. Her whole body shook, and her face was cold and pale as she stared in fear at the woman on top of her. Her body ached to move, to run, to hit, but she was held firmly in place.

Panicked blue eyes met mischievous heterochromic eyes – one eye was a feline yellow and the other shone a human-like blue. Not much about this woman seemed human either way. 

“W-Who are you?” Adora questioned, her voice cracking wildly throughout the three words as she failed to find her confidence. “What do you want?”

The intruder’s eyelids lowered slightly as she let out a low, loose chuckle from the back of her throat. Her chest shook as the sound rumbled through her, almost like the sound of a purr. But soon enough it and the chuckle together died out as she opened her mouth to respond.

“Oh, me?” Adora felt the breath of her captor burn along her face, steaming and unnaturally hot as she continued to speak. “I’m only your worst nightmare, but your wettest dream. I’m your unlucky day, but I’m the star you wish on at night. I’m a rude customer, yet I’m your next promotion.”

Adora didn’t exactly understand what the woman was saying. The adrenaline pumping through her only let a few words pass through to her brain, and the ones that did still didn’t make sense.

Nonetheless, the woman continued. “I’m depression. I’m happiness. I’m a bill. I’m a winning scratch ticket.” Her smirk widened as she continued on with her dramatic speech. After all, she put a good amount of practice into it. “In other words, I’m what you hate, but also what you want.”

Adora could only stare in a mix of terror and curiosity as her mind flipped over what the brunette had told her. The woman’s nose had scrunched at her last words, drawing emphasis at the word want.

Before the blonde could respond, the woman quipped, “But you can just call me Catra.”

The woman – Catra – pushed herself off of Adora and shot her another one of her smirks. Catra started to walk away from Adora, eyeing the room around her as she explored on her own accord.

Adora felt that she could do nothing but watch as her privacy was invaded, along with her house and even her own weapon. As the brunette turned around, she couldn’t help but notice the tail attached to her rear, further resembling her to an animal.

Catra walked over to her dresser and opened the top drawer, rummaging through the items in it with the confidence of someone who owned it.

A small growl found it’s way out of Adora’s mouth as she became enraged of the cat-woman shuffling her claws through her belongings. Adora took a few steps forward, stopping right behind Catra and grabbing her wrist tightly.

“I don’t want you here,” Adora hissed, tugging on Catra’s arm sharply. Catra didn’t seem to mind, as she hadn’t even jumped when Adora grabbed her.

Adora watched Catra’s body shake slightly as she let another deep chuckle rumble from her. She simply turned her head, a small smirk playing on her lips as she eyed the hand grasping onto her wrist. In one swift movement she bent her hand to grab onto Adora’s own wrist, catching Adora off-guard as she couldn’t react in time. Catra twisted her wrist harshly to the right, causing Adora to buckle over in an attempt to straighten it back out. A pained groan left her throat as Catra refused to relent on her hold, taking a sick joy in the blonde’s pain.

“Oh, but you do,” Catra drawled in a seductive voice, eyes glinting with mischief as she only twisted Adora’s arm further. 

Adora struggled against Catra yet found that she couldn’t even budge with the sheer amount of force Catra had imposed onto her. Despite Adora being extremely fit, it seemed that – whatever Catra was – she could hold her down with little to no effort.

When Adora felt that her arm couldn’t twist any further without it breaking, Catra finally removed her grip. 

The pale skin of Adora’s arm had turned a bright red. She nursed it with her other arm, waiting for the pain to subside as she eyed Catra with a look of pure loathing. The cat only returned a smirk to her frown, clearly enjoying Adora’s suffering.

Adora attempted to straighten up to hide the pain in her arm, trying to show as little weakness as possible to the threat in front of her. “Why are you doing this?”

A short hum floated through the air, following Catra in her wake as she started to slowly circle Adora. The blonde’s breath hitched as Catra placed an unsheathed finger on Adora’s jaw, leaving a red line as she slowly dragged her claw across pale skin. A brown tail wrapped itself around Adora’s thigh, causing her to swallow harshly as she carefully watched every movement the brunette made.

As Catra circled behind her, she trailed her finger down to Adora’s lower back. “Y’know, just because you threw the board out, doesn’t mean you threw me out with it.”

Shivers shot up Adora’s spine as she realized what Catra meant. She stood as still as a statue, trying not to react as Catra traced her finger back up from her hips and to her jaw.

“You practically invited me into your house,” Catra continued smugly. “Asked about me, told me about you.”

Adora’s mind shifted back to asking questions on the Ouija board with Glimmer and Bow, all six of their hands gripping onto it as they guided it to different letters. She remembers asking silly questions and getting mumbled answers at first, none of it forming into coherent words. She remembers that maybe ten minutes into their game, that sentences started to form. She remembers thinking that it was simply Bow and Glimmer guiding the planchette to scare her, so she played along.

Adora gasped in a breath as Catra flicked her finger up from her jaw, leaving a shallow cut underneath her chin. Once oxygen found it’s way to the slash, it stung slightly.

As Catra’s hands were finally off of her, Adora saw an opening to attack – so she did. She threw herself towards the woman with all of the strength her adrenaline could produce. She closed her eyes in expectance of impact.

In what seemed as less than a moment, Catra was gone. Adora grabbed at thin air and collapsed onto the hard ground, barely avoiding hitting her head as her hands quickly swept in front of her on reflex. Her impact on the ground caused her wrists and knees to hurt, and her head became too dizzy to look around for Catra. 

As Adora stared at the hardwood floor to center herself, she heard the shuffling of feet besides her and a high-pitched laugh. Adora lifted her head up clawed toes with feet wrapped in black fabric. 

Catra’s suit pants ruffled as she squatted down, becoming eye-level with Adora. A devilish smile was plastered along her face, two fangs poking out of her slightly agape mouth. 

“That was lovely,” Catra mused, eyes running along Adora’s face with amusement. “You should do that again. It made me laugh.”

Adora had to hold back the urge to lunge at her again. She only felt as if her anger was going up, and as her adrenaline dripped away, so was her fear. 

She stared at the woman in front of her. The cat ears, the fangs, the horns, the tail, the suit – this simply couldn’t be real. That’s right. This was all a bad dream. This was some weird nightmare that she could simply wake up from, and it would all not have been real. The pain she was feeling must have been coming from her falling off of her bed while she was sleeping. Yes. That had to be it.

This was a dream. This was a dream. This-

“-is a dream. This is a dream. This is a-“

“Lemme stop you right there,” Catra interrupted, an ounce of annoyance in her tone. However, the horrified look that came from Adora as she realized she had spoken aloud brought her mouth back to her signature smirk. 

“You have hope,” Catra observed. Her eyes ran over Adora’s face with curiosity, reading her torn and scared expression. “Good. That just gives me more fun destroying it.”

For emphasis on her words, Catra brought her clawed hands into a fist with a ferocious look in her eyes. A slight blush overtook her freckled cheeks in excitement and her ears lifted into two sharp triangles on top of her head. The light from Adora’s lamp shone directly into her yellow eye, giving her an even more feral look as it seemed to glow.

A loose strand of blonde hair had fallen into Adora’s face, but she looked right past it as she stared daggers at Catra. If looks could kill, Adora would finally be the death of her. But after two attempts at it, Adora was convinced that Catra simply couldn’t be put in a grave.

“Why?” Adora whimpered, no longer hiding the shiver in her voice as she stared directly into Catra’s yellow eye. “Why me?”

Catra’s eyes narrowed and her smirk diminished. She leaned towards Adora, bring her hand to grab the blonde’s chin and lift it towards her. She brought their faces nearly inches apart, causing Adora to go slightly cross-eyed as she struggled to look at Catra from such close up. Yet again, she could feel Catra’s breath as if it came from boiling water, the heat making her want to cringe away.

“Because.” Catra’s eyes trailed down to Adora’s lips then back up to her eyes in one swift motion. “We can't all be heros.”

After her sentence was finished, Catra pushed against Adora’s chin with such force that she fell on her back, practically throwing Adora away from her. Adora watched from the ground as Catra stood up and dusted herself off. She leaned over Adora and crossed her arms behind her neatly as she gazed smugly at the blonde on the ground, propping herself up with her elbows and her knees bent in towards her stomach.

“This has been fun,” Catra teased, bunching up her nose and bringing her eyebrows together. “But I think I’ll leave it at that. For now.”

Catra smirked again before taking a carefree step onto Adora’s stomach. She clenched up under the weight of the cat-woman, praying that the sharp nails on her toes didn’t impale her. Once the weight was off of her, she followed Catra with her eyes.

Adora quickly scurried to her feet as Catra started to walk out of her bedroom. Her palms stung, her knees were bruised, her jaw cut and her stomach aching, but at this point it was just a background noise. Her eyes, her thoughts, her brain was trained on the intruder, the non-human woman that had invaded her home, her privacy, her thoughts. 

Catra’s walk was neat. She placed each of her feet on an invisible line, as if she was walking on a tightrope with professional balance. Her hips swayed with her tail, both with their own separate rhythms. She had a perfect posture that held up her slim body and a held-high chin.

As Adora watched Catra walk away, from her hips to her horns, she wondered if what Catra had said was true. “I’m what you hate; I’m what you want.”

Catra interrupted her thoughts by speaking again. She turned her head so that Adora could only see her side-profile, which still sported a smirk and showed her blue eye.

“See you tomorrow, Princess.”

And with that, in the blink of an eye, she was gone.

Adora could only stand there, stunned, unsure what had just gone down in her bedroom. Sure, questionable things had happened in there, but this? This took the cake. She had just been threatened and had some intergalactic poem recited to her by a furry.

As she slowly moved herself back into her bed, tucking herself under the covers and turning off her lamp, her head was spinning like crazy. A myriad of thoughts overtook her brain. Despite, there was one prominent thought she had.

For the love of God, please tell me that marijuana was laced with a hallucinant.

With one final, suspicious sweep of her darkened room, Adora laid herself down and closed her eyes. 

She didn’t sleep well that night.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora continues life as normal.

Adora woke up in a sweat the next morning, her mind buzzing with the vivid and grotesque imagery she endured last night. It wasn’t unusual for her to have nightmares, but this – this was something different. On a whole different level, different.

She recounted her memories. Yes, she was starting to remember now. After her last classes, Bow and Glimmer came over with alcohol, weed and a Ouija board. They played the game, then left. A cat invaded her house, pinned her against her nightstand, and had now disappeared. 

Her eyes widened at the memory, slightly stinging from the cold air. The pain, the adrenaline, the anger, it all felt so real – but it couldn’t be.

Adora sat up, letting her untied hair drape around her face as she scanned her room. She instinctively looked towards the corner where she had seen a figure last night. They were nowhere to be seen.

She then rolled over to face her nightstand. Slowly but surely, she opened the first drawer and peered inside. A sigh of relief rang out as she saw her gun, in the exact same place as she had left it.

Now that she was sure of herself, sure that everything hadn’t been real, sure that the horned-woman – oh what was her name – Catra, didn’t exist, she felt comfortable getting up that morning. She slid over to check her phone, only to see it read 5am. 

Great, she’d waken up twenty minutes before her alarm went off. That’s twenty minutes I can’t get back, she almost groaned, her eyes growing heavy the longer she kept them open. She opted to just lay there, thinking, letting thoughts run freely throughout her head for a while.

But when her alarm went off and almost caused her to jump off of her bed, Adora figured it was time to hop into the shower to rid the lingering stench of alcohol and the sickly smell of weed off of her. 

She eventually found the strength in her to sit up on her bed, but was taken aback at the sudden pain she felt at doing so. Her abs seemed to flare up with every core movement she made. Adora used her pale hand to gently pull her shirt up, then run it over her stomach. She flinched slightly when her fingers had barely even ghosted over her mid-abdomen, in which she hissed in surprise.

She used her arms to pull her the rest of the way up onto her feet, only to find it hard to stand as well. Her knees felt as if they wanted to buckle in on themselves, the sting almost unbearable. Adora looked down at her legs, where blood was blotched over her knees and some stray lines ran down her shins. 

She was absolutely horrified at the sight. She quickly whipped her head around to look at her sheets to see them also covered in splotches of blood, as if her knees had been bleeding for a while and were left unwrapped. Peachy, now she’d have to clean blood off her sheets.

She growled, wanting to inspect her injuries under a better light. She ignored the painful stinging in her knees and slowly made her way to her bathroom. Once she had arrived, she instantly leaned herself against the counter, making sure to not collapse onto the tile floor. She flicked the light on.

Her eyes ran over herself. The first thing she noticed were the cuts on her jaw and neck. Scattered in perfectly straight lines, many shallow cuts made a ring around her face. A deeper slash was just under her chin, a few blotches of blood also present. 

Wanting to look at her stomach, she lifted off her shirt. She stood there naked, because who sleeps in a bra, examining her abdomen and the deep purple, blue and yellow bruise that covered a good portion of her stomach. 

Adora leaned on the counter to catch her breath, not understanding why her body was so beat. As if on cue, her hands slid up slightly on the granite counter and she howled out in pain as she felt even more bruises on her palms. 

She looked as if she had gotten in a fight and would have a hard time explaining to her peers if one asked. Hell, even Adora didn’t know what happened. Yes, she was prone to sleep fighting, but those scratches around her neck, the bruise on her stomach…

Unless…

No. No. There’s no unless. Nothing supernatural happened, and that’s that.

And with that thought, Adora marched over to her shower and turned it on, keeping it cold so that the heat wouldn’t hurt her wounds and the water pressure wouldn’t be too high.  
Stealing another pitiful glance into her mirror, Adora ventured out to her dresser and grabbed a sports bra, tank top, and shorts before heading back to her bathroom and setting them to the side. She grabbed a towel from a lower cabinet and set it on a bar next to her bath for easy access after she was done. 

After fully stripping and feeling the water, Adora stepped in, shivering as the water was colder than she would normally like. However, the cold felt good on her stomach and knees. She let out a pleasured sigh as some of her pain was taken away from her for the moment. 

As she grabbed the brush that was placed on the side of her bathtub and started brushing through her occasional tangles, she tried everything to not think of Catra – which is simply counter-productive once you think of it. If Adora went up to someone and told them to simply not think of a dog, their mind would immediately think of a dog. 

Simply speaking, Catra was living rent-free in Adora’s mind, and she hated it. 

Why would Adora have a dream… like that? What does a cat-human hybrid handling her like a rag doll represent?

She simply shook her head as she went to grab her shampoo. No, that’s just what hallucinents do to you. They really fuck you up in the brain. That was really the only logical explanation to it. 

And god damnit, Adora needed some fucking logic in her life right now.

As Adora let water run through her hair, clearing it of the shampoo, she thought of what Catra had told her. That she’s what Adora hated. Sure, yes, Adora hated Catra very much, even if she was a fiction of her imagination. However, she had focused in more on the second part. What you want.

Adora definitely didn’t want Catra. She grabbed her conditioner and thought of many reasons why she didn’t want her. She ran the conditioner through her hair. But she had to admit, Catra was attractive.

She squinted her eyes at the thought. It wasn’t wrong to think that, right? Her own mind had made up the character, so of course she would imagine attractive characteristics. But again, usually when she fantasized the woman was fully human and not trying to step on her. 

After a few minutes had passed, Adora rinsed the conditioner out of her hair, bringing it out much silkier than it had been going into the shower. She turned the shower head off and opened the curtain separating her from the rest of the bathroom and immediately felt a wave of extremely cold air hit her. Her arm blindly reached out for her towel, and once her hand grasped fabric, she pulled it towards herself and wrapped up into the soft towel. 

As she went to brush her teeth, dry her hair and put on fresh clothes, she hoped that she was no longer drunk nor high. And she really hoped that they didn’t have another random drug check-up after last months incident. 

Having literally no time to waste, Adora grabbed her book-bag and basketball duffel bag and walked out of her apartment. She checked the time, then decided that maybe she should speed-walk. 

Feeling the sting of the wind against her knees, she concluded that she would head to the physical coach before practicing to get her knees wrapped. If she so happened to slide on her knees on the court – that would hurt like shit.

It was easy to come up with a lie to excuse her lack of knowledge of how she injured her knees. She would simply tell people that she had fallen off of her bed at night. And anyways, that’s most likely what happened. She had a few bad dreams and rolled off her bed, and took a few bruises with her. 

Adora smiled to herself. The more lies she created, the more she was believing them. Good. Better than what her memory told her.

She could hear the squeaks from shoes and the pounding of basketballs on inflated floors as she entered the gymnasium. She veered off to the right into a hallway, quickly so that she wouldn’t catch the attention of her teammates for them to ask questions. She wanted to talk to the physical coach and only her right now.

Walking towards the office, Adora slid the elastic band on her wrist down to her hand and went to work with her hair, putting it into the ponytail that she wore every day. Whether at practice, in class, or at home, her hair was up in a ponytail until nighttime fell. 

Adora giggled slightly, remembering what Glimmer had once told her. “If you keep wearing a ponytail to bed, your hair will fall out before you’re thirty. So release the poof, dumbass.”

It was simply just Glimmer’s way of communicating her love.

Adora rapped her knuckles on a shut wooden door, waiting for a response. Once she was signaled with a simple “Come in”, she opened the door and let herself in.

The room, as always, smelled like rubbing alcohol, plastic, and feet. A weird combination, however expected when you have many injured college students entering your office per week.

“Adora!” Coach Spinnarella exclaimed, a shocked look written across her face. “What happened to you? Wait, please don’t tell me you went and got yourself in a fight.”

The blonde shook her head and walked towards the physical coach. Coach Spinnarella was always a very sweet woman, especially towards the basketball team. She would take any and all athletes under her wing and nurture them back to health to the best of her abilities.

She always had a soft spot for athletes in particular, and that’s why, when she had earned her medical degree, she focused her studies on athletes. It simply came from her wife, Netossa, who played basketball when they met. Spinnarella spent a good amount of time aiding Netossa with her wounds, and she soon found a passion in helping student athletes.

Adora smiled and recited her lie to Coach Spinarella. Despite her being a horrible liar, Coach Spinnarella didn’t question it. 

Coach Spinnarella directed Adora to a foam bed and told her to sit. She went to open an above cabinet and pulled out disinfectants, band-aids, and bandages. She gave a soft smile to Adora as she brought the items to the bed and set them neatly next to the blonde. 

“This will sting a little bit, but of course you can handle it,” Coach Spinnarella warned before applying the disinfectant onto her knees. She was right about the sting, but Adora kept a straight face through it. She was an athlete, she’d felt worse.

Soon, Adora’s knees were carefully wrapped in olive bandages and her jaw was littered with band-aids. There wasn’t much Spinnarella could do for Adora’s stomach and palms, other than suggest she ice both wounds and take it easy. 

“You’re going to be a little late for practice today, so make sure you tell Coach Netossa that you were with me,” Coach Spinnarella said with a wink. “Also, tell her that I love her.”  
Adora made a gagging face and joked, “Bleck, love. Disgusting.” She giggled together with Coach Spinnarella before sliding herself off of the foam bed and waving the coach a goodbye before slipping out of her office. 

As Adora opened the gym door, a few of her teammates glanced at her, but kept on with their drills. Coach Netossa shot her a threatening look and signaled for Adora to come talk to her.

Adora jogged over as fast as she could while carrying two book bags. In a hurry, she explained to her why she was late and relayed the physical coach’s message before heading into the locker room to change. 

She set her book-bag into her locker and went to work on quickly changing her sneakers into basketball shoes. She bent her legs, grimacing as the bandages squeezed against the back of her knees. Hopefully it wouldn’t limit Adora’s range of flexibility with her legs, because running and jumping isn’t exactly avoidable in the game of basketball.

Adora sighed, threw her duffle-bag into her locker, and ran back out of the locker room and onto the court. She was thrown a basketball by a sophomore manager and quickly fell in line with her teammates.

As the team went synchronized with dribbling drills, Adora placed herself between Scorpia, a friendly senior, and Lonnie, a not-so-friendly senior and captain of the basketball team. 

“You’re late,” Lonnie directed towards Adora between breaths. Lonnie’s form was flawless, and as the starting point-guard, she had the best handle on the team as well as an amazing inside drive. She was fierce, despite her height, and didn’t take shit from anyone. Especially Adora.

Adora wasn’t sure exactly why Lonnie didn’t like Adora in particular, but it seemed to have always been that way. Even before Lonnie was team captain, she simply had a distaste for the blonde. However, that never stood in the way of Lonnie’s gameplay, as most of Adora’s shots were assists from Lonnie herself. 

Before Adora could explain herself, Scorpia answered for her. “Aw, Lonnie, give her a break! She was just getting wrapped up.”

Adora smiled gratefully at Scorpia. The tall center was always in better terms with Lonnie, despite her relentless attitude. Scorpia was given constant criticisms by Lonnie due to her clumsy handle on the ball, but Scorpia was an amazing center and defender nonetheless. She was basically the moral of the team when Lonnie was humbler of the team.

“Yeah, well, she shouldn’t be getting injured outside of basketball,” Lonnie replied, shooting Adra a disappointed look. All three of the teammates stopped at the edge of the court and turned around, switching sides with the drills.

Adora frowned. She simply couldn’t explain to Lonnie that she didn’t know how she had received her injuries, as that would make it even worse. Lonnie would simply tell her that she “shouldn’t have put herself in that situation”. 

“I promise, Lonnie, it won’t happen again,” Adora assured the captain between dribbles. It hurt her palms on certain dribbles when she dribbled with extra pressure, but not too much that she couldn’t put up with it. Her abs, however, ached with every movement she made. 

Lonnie simply grunted in Adora’s direction but didn’t respond further. Despite Lonnie’s dislike towards Adora, both strongly respected each other. Both were powerful components of a powerful team. 

Adora watched Lonnie’s form as they went through the drills, trying to copy her body movements. It just seemed so natural for her.

Coach Netossa blew the whistled attached to a band around her neck and motioned for all basketball girls to come towards her. The whistled rang throughout the gym and hurt the ears of those that endured the sound, but Adora was used to it, after hearing it for three years now. 

All girls jogged towards the side of the gym, some picking up personal water bottles to drink from. All thirty-five players huddled into a large circle, looking at Coach Netossa expectantly. 

A scrimmage of running both defensive and offensive plays was set up. Seven teams of five girls were selected, and Adora was put onto a team with all five starters, which included Lonnie and Scorpia. 

Five of her teammates walked up to take the defensive end of the scrimmage. Adora set herself up on the right-wing of the basketball court, taking an athletic stance, waiting for the whistle to be blown.

Once the whistle blew, Lonnie dribbled the ball forward, stopping as she met a defender. With a quick fake and a bounce-pass to Adora, Lonnie ran across the court to take her next position. Adora attempted to dribble around her defender, and once locked in, she passed the ball to Scorpia, who had moved inside the paint. Adora started to run down the court, losing her defender as she positioned herself at the bottom left corner of the court. Scorpia quickly passed the ball back to her, and Adora reared back to take a jump-shot from behind the three-point line. 

Adora smirked, knowing the ball was going in as soon as it rolled off her fingertips. She ran back towards the opposite side of the court as she heard the crisp sound of the net as the ball went in. 

As Scorpia went to take her defensive position, she quickly patted Adora on the back with a smile.

Adora eventually slowed down and turned around, backpedaling as their opponents approached, taking their positions and preparing to run their drill. Adora watched and shifted with her opponent, making sure that the shooting guard wouldn’t cross her.

Their point guard took a contested shot from mid-range but missed. Scorpia gathered the rebound and passed it to Lonnie, and their defense quickly transitioned back to offense. 

As Adora ran towards her position, she glanced towards the sidelines, looking for how much time of the drill they had left. As she glanced, her eyes ran over someone sitting down, not in practice gear. Surprised, she went to study the person further, but was brought back in by her name being called from the court.

Lonnie had passed the ball to Adora, who was not looking, and had shouted her name when she realized her teammate wasn’t paying attention. With a quick twist and an awkward dribble, Adora was able to save the pass, but was already locked out by her opponent, forcing her to send the ball back to Lonnie. 

She went to shift to take Lonnie’s position at the top of the key. The ball was passed to the other shooting guard, who then passed back to Lonnie as she went up for a lay-up.  
As Adora’s team pedaled back to defense, Lonnie shot her a sharp glare.

Adora, still curious, looked back to the sidelines, careful to keep her opponent in her peripheral vision. She scanned the bench, where she had seen the person before, but no one was there. 

Hopefully she wasn’t still high.

Adora went back to focusing on defense. She was slightly distracted, however, and her opponent made an open pass to the paint and a point was scored. 

As Adora jogged back to offense, she searched one more time. She saw something, she knew it. 

And she was right.

A glimpse of mismatched eyes and shining horns was enough to make her stop in her place. In a blink, however, there was nothing there. She had swore she’d seen her, but maybe…

“ADORA!” Lonnie screamed from across the court. “What the HELL are you doing? Get on offense!”

Adora blushed a deep red out of embarrassment and sprinted over to take her position on the wing. She saw her coach put her head in her head, and only grew more embarrassed as her teammates stared at her. She gave a quick sorry to Lonnie and went back into the game. 

Lonnie shook her head and began by passing the ball to the other shooting guard, opposite of Adora. After a bit of dribbling and Lonnie shifting to the corner, their forward brought the ball to the shooting line. Adora went to make herself open, and once her defender was lagging behind her she found the ball in her hands. 

She focused on making her defender trip up. She quickly dribbled the ball behind her back and twirled around her opponent, then made an open pass to Lonnie. She was immediately covered by the center, giving Adora an open lane to the basket. 

Adora ran forward and caught the pass cleanly on her hands. She went to jump up on her left foot, but before she could fully get in the air and release the ball from her hands, a foot seemed to come out of nowhere and trip her.

Adora gave a small shout before roughly hitting the ground on her side. All of the wind inside of her lungs was stolen from her, causing her to gasp out desperately. She groaned loudly and shifted over to her back before opening her eyes.

Standing above her was the woman from last night – Catra – with a smug smile and her arms crossed over her chest.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please Leave comments telling me how I did and stay tuned for the next update.


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